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Cardinal Quiro Olranna
“Nothing motivates the masses like fear and faith; and this is what we are: fear and faith in equal measures, meted out to those worthy of our attentions.” –Cardinal Quiro Olranna, Josian Arch-Diocese Titles: Void Mistress, Queen of the Seven Deeps Seat of Power: Canopus Arch-Diocese: Josian Reach Originally a pilgrim, Quiro joined the church after ‘hearing the call’ of the Saint when she first set foot on Maccabeus Quintus as a girl. Not of noble birth and not even born within the sector, it is a strange path that has led her to don the cardinal’s mantle, one that her allies view as the will of the Emperor and her enemies see as suspicious and unorthodox. Now a venerable woman nearing her third century, Quiro cares little for such talk any more, and she has long ago accepted the stigma which led her to the cardinalship of the oft forgotten Josian Arch-Diocese. Even though her diocese borders the shining glory of both the Golgenna Reach and the Adrantis sub-sector, Quiro has a poor domain over which to rule and a constant struggle to prove her importance to the rest of the Sector Synod. In fact behind her back many of her peers think of her as a ‘care-taker’ cardinal, ruling a stretch of void in which the Ministorum only has nominal interest. Despite this perception, however, she is as ambitious and driven as any of her counterparts (common traits in Arch- Diocese Cardinals) and has her own ambitions of power and ideas of how best to increase the Ministorum’s control and influence within the sector. Part of these plans have led her to make pacts with Kregory against the interests of Ignato, on the promise of greater support for her own agendas and a strengthening of the Ministorum within her diocese. Of course largely these are empty promises based on the success of Kregory’s own plans and Quiro’s ability to bridge the obstacle of distance between their domains---which are divided by Ignato’s. The fact that such pacts are being made however is significant and shows that Ignato’s control of the Sector Synod may be far less complete than he would like to admit. Quietly Quiro has also been garnering support from neighboring sectors and other non-Calixian arms of the Ministorum. So far she has had only limited success but this ‘open door’ may well invite new and unpredictable parties into the ongoing power plays of the Sector Synod. Needless to say, if Ignato were to find out about such back-channel dealings, he could move to have her stripped of her Arch-Diocese and perhaps even her Cardinal’s office. Among Quiro’s primary concerns for her own diocese is the cleansing of the death world Woe, which has been a thorn in her side since her rise to power. Little is know about the death world save that few who set foot on its boggy, mist-choked surface ever return. Rumors abound that the world itself is somehow ‘aware,’ with a mind buried deep below its bogs or a connection to the powers of the warp. These rumors, and orbital warning beacons, have been enough to keep most Emperor-fearing travelers away, but in recent times the world has become a magnet for heretics and cultists either hoping to uncover the source of the planet’s power or to bow down before it as an alien god. Already Quiro has created an orbital shrine to keep an eye on the void around Woe and to draw the light of the God-Emperor to this dark part of the sector. However what she truly desires is to launch a crusade to cleanse the death world once and for all, root out the nests of heretics and uncover the alien horror at the core of the planet (if such a creature exists) and destroy it. Such a crusade however will doubtless be costly and extraordinarily hazardous (given records from those who have set foot on Woe and lived to tell the tale) and impossible without the support of the Sector Synod.